GoodSAM Responder
When patients suffer a head injury they often stop breathing although their brain is actually not itself injured. Opening an airway and giving basic life support can radically alter the outcome for these patients. The problem has been finding people who can do this, alerting them and rapidly getting them to the patients.
There are, of course, thousands of people with such skills; off-duty doctors, nurses, police officers, first aiders are all "Good Samaritans" who are simply unaware of the emergency going on next door or outside their building. The Good SAM App uses the technology that can notify these people and help the person in need.
Who Are We?
Good SAM is a community of people – Good Samaritans – happy to assist if they are the closest person to a medical emergency. They are trained in first aid and may have additional skills. They can maintain an airway, help stop bleeding and, if necessary, perform life saving, high quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or use a defibrillator.
The "SAM" in the name not only refers to Samaritan, but is also an acronym for “Smartphone Activated Medics”.
What Are The Apps ?
We are publishing two applications; GoodSAM Alerter and GoodSAM Responder. The GoodSAM Alerter app uses locational services to track the location of a person in need of a help; after a call is triggered we know exactly where the person is located.
On the other hand, the GoodSAM Responder app continuously sends locational updates to our server to allow the location of volunteer doctors/first-aiders to be tracked so they can be notified of any emergencies occurring around them. For more information please refer to "www.goodsamapp.org".
Which Countries Are Supported ?
Our aim is to potentially cover all the large cities around the globe.
Category : Health & Fitness
Reviews (22)
Really important app but didn't go smoothly, after accepting the calls, calling again to accept the same emergency , shows that u accept the first call but u not reply to second call, then telling that you not attend and you not able to chatting with emergency service, we know as first responders that time with cardiac arrest it is key to success, no spending 5 min to reply to the app with so many technical issues, just able to finish full raport x2
Very good concept and I have responded many times already. Would be nice to see an updated UI. I feel the app takes ages to open when I do get a push notification and it just feels a little old. An SOS button may be nice just to put out a request for help to surrounding people while I'm out treating someone or I come across an incident. I do seem to be getting many calls that get cancelled almost as soon as I accept them, not sure if that's normal or just a bug however.
Pro's: App is brilliant. I have been to numerous arrests and other category 1 calls (also work for Emergency services) to assist my local ambulance service. The idea is fantastic for early intervention cpr and because of this I've helped save lives. Cons: I have this app on android (personal phone) and iPhone (works phone) and it crashes a lot on android. More so when I get alerted. I have to ring my ambulance service for the details. On iPhone its never been an issue.
While the intent may be good, the app feels rudimentary and ill-conceived. Basic UI and UX mistakes are prominent, which results in a frustrating experience when trying to use it. Distances for opportunities are inaccurate and give a poor idea of how far away the task actually is. There is no way to calculate distance when driving, walking or using public transport. The developer reply only cements my observations about the app's poor UI.
an excellent communication tool, easy to navigate and respond to.
Works well so far. Only issue is I can't upload a photo. I have checked permissions to allow access to media and phone isn't on battery saver. But whenever I try to upload a photo from my gallery it says it can't access this file. Not sure how crucial this is. Looks like most volunteers in my area haven't uploaded a photo.
Great idea, I would like to believe this can help save lives. All the toggle buttons under "me" reset to off every time the app closes, times out in the background, or if a call or simulation is opened. Also it doesn't seem to be working properly in the background on my Huawei android phone, the app shuts down and all the settings reset to default. I've got it set to "even when silent" but it doesn't make any sound when my phone is set to do not disturb.
Very good app. Used several times responding to emergencies. The reality of it is, we drive to these emergencies and when maps opens, it's a bit of a pain switching from walking to driving. Additionally, it would be a great feature to change the alert tone, as distinct as it is, I would like something which is assigned by myself and identifiable as an alert - please put this feature in place!
I find the idea of this app to be very good. My only concern is that having responded to 2 alerts via the App, I wasn't given an address, which slowed me down getting on scene, because all I could do was look at the satellite map and try to figure out exactly where the building was based on the pin on the map. I don't seem to have had any other issues with the App. Early CPR/Defibrillation saves lives! But if an address of the emergency could be given, I feel this would improve response times.
Upon installation, I can't seem to get past the initial introduction pages. The button at the bottom which says "Ask for permissions" does nothing when tapped. I've checked the permissions that the app has been granted in the application manager, and it has everything it needs. Phone is a Samsung J3 running Android 5.1.1. Update: Thanks to the team for updating this so quickly. All working perfectly now!
Version 12.8 on Android 10: looks like notifications may have been fixed, although now when I receive a task I get a "double ding" where my notification sound plays twice, almost over the top of itself. Still, this is better than silence. Some tasks still do not say what type of help is required until the "accept" button is clicked. UPDATE: forgot I had the "bypass silent" option on, was the only way I could receive alerts in prev. version. Yes, if off, I get one "ding" now as expected - thnx!
Not very impressed. I have installed the latest version (after the update mentioned in previous comments) and the app constantly resets the toggles to off. I can change the desired ones to on, but closing the app and opening it causes them to reset. Every time. Sometimes I can change toggles to ON, go to the map then back to "me" and they have all changed back to off. would a simple "save changes" button overcome this? Samsung S10+
Fundamentally sound but as a NHS volunteer responder there are two key niggles which could be addressed to make life much easier: 1. Unable to copy phone numbers from alerts to paste into the phone app, which means switching back and forth to type it manually. Can you make the number a link to dial directly or at least let it be copied to the clipboard? 2. Can't accept more than one task at a time so it's not possible to do them in one trip or make another call when the first isn't answered.
The distance slider doesnt work properly. If I slide it to 25km, I go to another section of the app then come back to the distance and it has reset to a random distance. If I change it again, do something else and come back, the distance has reset to another random number. Quite infuriating and means it is not possible to set yourself as available in the correct radius. Samsung S8.
Nice idea, but app needs a lot of improvement. Just spent several minutes with the map displayed and a progress spinner but not able to switch tabs. All I wanted to do was check if I was on duty. As an Android app developer, my time would probably be better spent fixing the app than volunteering so that other volunteers don't waste their lives waiting for the app to respond.
The installation is clunky. If there's anything going to stop somewhere using an app, that'll be it. (I test and write software as a profession.) It's hard to scroll the page without hitting a selector (such as the country). The image crop allows only a square and could not set to the width of my driver's license, so part of the license was cut off. After several attemps of that, I was forced to select Work ID instead of Drivers License. And please fully capitalise countries' names! Edit: Thank you for your reply. I know how to use a camera. The image I was trying to use had the full driver's license - it was the cropping that did not allow me to use any more than 2/3 of the image that was previously taken by the camera. Edit 2: As noted, it can get into a state where a community responder cannot select 'drivetrs license. Was this app tested by devs?
Until yesterday, 23-04-20, it worked fine. Today it fails to open just goes to initial screen with no info then returns to my phone screen. Have uninstalled then reinstated. Rebooted my phone but the app has stopped working. Not very good if we are needed urgently. Update. Wow I am impressed with how rapid GoodSAM has risen to the challenge and fixed the bug. Works perfectly again. Thank you. I have changed the rating.
I need to be able to notes to an issue. Just now I called the person needing help, several times and couldn't get through. If that happens, or if they no longer need help, or some other issue, "drop the call" misses so much information and just puts the next Responder in the same position as me. Also there needs to be a way to silence that bloody siren sound! Just pressing any button on the phone, or having a button appear on the screen "Stop" as it can't be stopped
App repeatedly crashing after initial sign in has been rectified by the team at GoodSAM - clearly was an account issue, not an app stability issue. I'll be happy to continue recommending this to my colleagues at 000. It would be handy if we could customise the alert/alarm sound. I'm not too sure as to how much the simulation reflects an actual alert, but getting the address right away would be more efficient than having to fumble through the map to get it. Thanks GoodSAM :)
I have had the same experience it sounds like other have. The app is totally unstable and crashes. I do not want to put my self on duty out of fear of not knowing what will happen / what i will be asked to do. So i try to use the Simulate feature, this just results in the app reloading its self, going crazy and eventually crashing. Very bad execution. I can not now help as wanted to. If company's can make stable well made apps for fun silly things like additive games surely you guys can get in good people to make a stable easy to use app for something that can save lives! Please try to fix!!
Not very user friendly. I have signed up to be an NHS volunteer and it has been recommended that I try a simulation first. The whole thing just gets stuck and I have to turn my phone on and off to get into the app again. I don't seem to be able to vary my response distance on the app either. I have tried doing this on the website, but it only allows a 3km maximum distance. This may be adequate in London, but I live in the countryside and would like to be able to travel to my nearest city to help
I've had 3 alerts on the app now. 2 didn't give me any info on where the alert was. The 3rd one went off this morning at 8.49am with no info on where. It's just gone off again, 11 hours later, with details of where the casualty was. I'm now half an hour away and 11 hours too late. GoodSAM, send me your email address and I'll send you the screenshot just received which evidences that the SOS is visible before accepting. In the latest case however I'm 30 mins away by car.